I have come to the conclusion that I typically have enough space in my brain for two things a day: work and one other project.
Today, my brain overfloweth.
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Posts Tagged ‘creativity’
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Posted in Writing, tagged writing, creativity, Writers, Thoughts, #365Ways, #365Ways2023 on January 27, 2023| Leave a Comment »
Wild and Unpredictable
Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2023, creativity, Fiction, genre fiction, Kafka, music, Thoughts, Writers, writing on January 25, 2023| Leave a Comment »
Some days you wake up with a story idea crystallized in your mind, bright and shiny and ready to go. And some days you wake up with “She’s An Easy Lover” by Philip Bailey and Phil Collins stuck on repeat.
Guess which kind of day I’m having.
The funny part is that it’s not a song I’ve ever actively liked, I wasn’t dreaming about anything related to its subject, and it’s not the sort of fiction I tend to write. I mean, it’s not as if the song is about the lead singer of a band telling the story of how he stumbled into a dark street one night after a show and into the arms of a beautiful and deadly vampire or anything.
Right?
So maybe there’s a story seed here after all. I still don’t know why this particular song came to me at this particular time, but that’s the wild and unpredictable nature of creativity for you.
“Don’t bend; don’t water it down; don’t try to make it logical; don’t edit your own soul according to the fashion. Rather, follow your most intense obsessions mercilessly.”
― Franz Kafka
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Tasty Tasty Words
Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2023, creativity, Fiction, genre fiction, inspiration, Thoughts, Writers, writing on January 24, 2023| Leave a Comment »
“There is something delicious about writing the first words of a story. You never quite know where they’ll take you.”
― Beatrix Potter
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A Teeny Tiny Thimble
Posted in Other, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2023, #becauseMonday, creativity, drp, inspiration, Writers, writing on January 23, 2023| Leave a Comment »
Today I give you a funny animal photo, because it’s Monday and my current levels of inspiration could fit into a thimble.
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Seriously, Though…
Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2023, back to work!, creativity, Fiction, Thoughts, Writers, writing on January 19, 2023| Leave a Comment »
Where has this day gone? Despite constant motion since pre-dawn, I have accomplished exactly two of the many things on my list for today. Ok, fine, three if I stretch it. It’s time to buckle down and finalize the edits on this story.
“Concentrate all your thoughts upon the work at hand. The sun’s rays do not burn until brought to a focus.”
― Alexander Graham Bell
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Go Play
Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2023, creativity, inspiration, Thoughts, writing, yay on January 18, 2023| Leave a Comment »
“You are perfectly cast in your life. I can’t imagine anyone but you in the role. Go play.”
— Lin-Manuel Miranda
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So Alive
Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2023, creativity, Fiction, Thoughts, Writers, writing on January 15, 2023| Leave a Comment »
“Imperfection inspires invention, imagination, creativity. It stimulates. The more I feel imperfect, the more I feel alive.”
― Jhumpa Lahiri, In Other Words
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Way to Go, Grandma
Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2023, creativity, Fiction, free fiction, genre fiction, Marissa Lingen, Nature's Futures, short stories, writing on January 14, 2023| Leave a Comment »
For today’s bit of fun, here’s a Nature‘s Futures story by Marissa Lingen: So your grandmother is a starship now- a quick guide for the bewildered.
Your grandmother is becoming a starship! She has gone through many phases in her life already — infant, child, teenager, young adult, student, worker, in many cases spouse, parent, retiree. She has had hobbies like knitting, volleyball and carbon mitigation. She has travelled in planetary atmosphere whenever her circumstances allowed. Now she is uploading her consciousness into a starship! The circle of life is beautiful.
I am now going to imagine that my grandmother is a spaceship.
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On the Off Chance
Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2023, creativity, genre fiction, inspiration, Thoughts, Writers, writing on January 13, 2023| Leave a Comment »
On the off chance that you’re having doubts about how you stack up against others, in writing or elsewhere, here’s a thoughtful quote. Follow the link for his whole piece, which is part of a series of posts worth reading.
…I think it’s clear our pop culture and what passes for our media discourse have a dangerously romanticized view of creative work.
“Oh, what a talented person,” our stories go, “oh, how powerful their inspiration must have been!” Talent certainly exists and inspiration certainly exists, but I fear our popular view of creativity artificially centers both, eliding struggle, practice, failure, and the investment of time. Too often, we talk about something akin to magic, about early purity of vision, about the notion that we are chosen or anointed for certain tasks, and while I cannot speak to how the secret machinery of the cosmos operates, I can testify that most of my own moments of lovely inspiration have been purchased with long hours of study, planning, and practice.
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— Scott Lynch, The Post of Christmas Past
Write What You Like
Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2023, creativity, Fiction, genre fiction, Writers, writing on January 10, 2023| Leave a Comment »
If you can write beginnings and ends, you can make a nice living as a writer. If you write middles, you win Pulitzers and Nobel Prizes and stuff. But with beginnings and ends, you’re going to do okay.
— James Patterson
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J.R. Johnson 
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